Celebrating Sacraments in the Domestic Church

Pope John Paul II prayed, thought and wrote a lot about the family. He re-introduced the term Domestic Church, which was a frequently used term in the first centuries, when people came together to celebrate with a meal to remember Jesus. Thinking about our family as a church can give new inspiration to our calling.

The most characteristic of the Catholic Church is that we celebrate sacraments. I think we should celebrate those sacraments in our Domestic Churches also. In this writing I discuss how we could celebrate those seven sacraments in our Churches on a daily basis.


Sacrament of Baptism

We become part of the church by celebrating the sacrament of baptism. Jesus was the true Son of God; we become adopted sons and daughters of God by our baptism.

We become a member of a domestic church through birth, adoption or marriage. A child comes into existence out of love between a man and a woman. The child is asked to take that love into the domestic church. Likewise, in the local church, when the baptismal candle is lit from the Easter candle, the one baptized is asked to carry the fire, the light, the love of God, that is always bigger, and give it forth.

When it is time for the child to be born the water will break. There has come an end for the child to his or her stay in the safe place of the mother’s womb. There is no possibility of staying; the child needs to enter the new life. So the child becomes the member of the domestic church, the same way it becomes a member of the World Church, by flowing water.

In our domestic churches we celebrate life when we celebrate our birthdays, the gift of our father and mother who worked in unison with God to give us life. There are other ways to celebrate life too in our domestic churches. We could, for example, celebrate life by remembering our baptism by (shortly) lighting our baptismal candle with Easter, when we celebrate Jesus’ baptism or the anniversary of our own. But on a more daily basis we could show the love that brought us to life by showing our passion, curiosity, determination and being in awe about God and each other and all life that surrounds us everywhere.


Sacrament of Confirmation

When we come forth to receive the sacrament of confirmation, we are asked if we really make the choice of faith. We ask the Holy Spirit to help us and receive a special blessing.

In the domestic church, we make many choices, big and small ones, on a daily basis. Every day there is the question, for example, what we will have for dinner. Can we make that choice with a good conscious? With our decision do we take our health and the health of the earth into consideration? Do we also into consideration that other people, all over the world and for generations to come need to eat too? What school do we choose for our child, what kind of employer do we choose? What kind of car will we drive? With every choice, big and small, we should ask ourselves what Jesus would have done, what decision can have God’s blessing?


Sacrament of the Eucharist

In church we celebrate the Eucharist. We read stories from the Bible, we pray, we share the Body and Blood of Christ.

Research has shown that people with a strong religious belief are better able to cope with life’s hardships. As Roman Catholics we should therefore attend Eucharist frequently, because the Eucharist is the source and the summit of our Christian life, so that we get a strong religious identity.

In our domestic churches we should also share meals together frequently. Celebrating meals together invites us to tell each other stories, about what we will do that day or have done, what we think of religious things and politics and other things that happened close by or far away. Research has shown that children that grow up in a family, where they sit together as a family to share the meal (at least 5 times a week), are happier, have better results in school, have less food, alcohol or drug problems when they grow up.

Sharing meals together in the domestic church should therefore get priority above children’s activities, or long workdays of dad or mom.

Just like we do in the world church, we pray in the domestic church before and after meals. This way we thank God for the food we receive and we ask God’s blessing for our domestic church and her members.


Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation

In our days the sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation is not very popular. We try to live a good life, why do we need to talk about sin? It looks a little like the Church wants to make us feel guilty to keep us under control, to make us feel low about ourselves compared to the important church leaders. But I think that we miss something fundamental if we walk away from all the possibilities to receive the sacrament. If we do so, we give up hope for ourselves. We give up the hope that we will learn from our sins. We deny that we need God’s help to improve ourselves. And we give up the hope that we can really bring the Kingdom of God closer.

In the domestic church we also must learn to celebrate the sacrament of penance and reconciliation. We have to learn to say sorry, to ask each other for forgiveness, to talk and work out our mischief, to learn to forgive each other, and after repentance and penance learn even to forget. We should learn to do this with the same conviction as the father of the prodigal son forgave his son.


Sacrament of the anointing of the sick

The church gives a special blessing to sick people, who then receive spiritual, emotional and sometimes even physical healing. Sometimes sickness lead people to think that they are of no more use, and maybe even a burden to others. The anointing helps them to identify with the suffering Christ. Jesus healed many sick people; he wants us to be healthy.

In the domestic church we have to have special attention to the hungry, the elderly and the sick. When we wake up every three hours, because our newborn infant is hungry, we learn to live like a monk. When people of our family have financial problems, we can help them with caritas, just like the local church gives caritas too. We help each other and our children when they are sick and help our parents whenever possible.


Sacrament of Matrimony

At the altar, a man and a woman have given their “yes” to each other. Just like God loves the man, so the woman is asked to love her husband. And, just like God loves the woman, the man is asked to love his wife.

In the domestic church, the man and the woman are asked to say “Yes” to each other every day. That way they will continue to be one and won’t grow apart.


Sacrament of Holy Orders

Parents are the priests of their domestic church. They administrate the sacraments, they give life, they make the choices, they lead in prayer, they take care that there is money to clothe the naked, to satisfy the hungry, they take care of their building. They prepare meals, they take care of the sick, they make sure their home is an environment where sins can be confessed and forgiven, they take the responsibility for their domestic church and above all they are faithful to God and by their love for each other, their children, their parents and their neighbors make God present.


Concluding thoughts

Church documents always show us a vision of perfection. But, a perfect local church or domestic church does not exist. The Kingdom of God is not yet here. In this world we cannot reach perfection yet. There will always be things that go wrong in our local church and in our domestic churches. But with the Easter Mystery we believe that new life is possible. For our churches it means that we must continue to pray and work to make Gods presence more and more visible. That way we bring the Kingdom of God closer.

Judith van Rijt